The $100 personal gym?
Submitted
by
Corson
Corson writes "CBC reports that the 21st century diabetes epidemic affects almost 7.5% of the world population, almost 250 million people. Diabetes, or complications from the disease, now kills 3.8 million people a year or about the same number as HIV/AIDS. Nine out of 10 Canadians with diabetes have Type 2 and the percentage is probably similar in other developed countries. There is no cure for this condition; diet and exercise are recommended to keep Type 2 diabets and its complications in check. While there is hope that new drug therapies will become available in the near future (see also /. article Bone Hormone Linked to Obesity and Diabetes), one of the experts cited indicates that "There is no doubt that this is linked to the epidemics of overweight and obesity, and there is no doubt that this increase in overweight and obesity is linked to the profound way in which the life of those children and adolescents has changed over the past 10 to 20 years." But exercising is more easy said than done — for reasons that have to do mainly with mood, fatigue, time, and money. I wonder if the time has come to consider building an affordable, "$100 Personal Gym" that everyone could have in their bedroom to exercise on a regular basis with minimal time and financial constraints. Also, given that "...as long as developing countries continue to embrace the bad health habits associated with affluence, the diabetes epidemic will continue to grow.", they might benefit more from such a device than from the $100 Laptop."
